Former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon is running for the Senate again, more than four years after he quit politics to make a tilt for South Australian state politics.
His former party – the Nick Xenophon Team – was renamed the Centre Alliance after he left, meaning he will not be above the line on the Senate ballot paper.
Nick Xenophon is running for the Senate again.Credit:Robert Shakespeare
“For the last four years I’ve tried to be a political hermit – minding my own business and leaving it up to others to be involved in the political decisions that ultimately affect our lives, and those of our loved ones,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
“I can no longer sit on the sidelines.”
Mr Xenophon, who worked as a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer in his time off from politics, said he’s returning to Canberra to speak out on “issues that matter”.
“Incredibly, it has gotten worse in Canberra. It’s nastier, full of hatred and bile that eats away at our nation’s core,” he said.
“So many of them are too busy doing a job on each other, rather than doing the job we’re paying them for. I must come back, to call them out, and to speak out on the issues that have to be tackled. Why? Because I give a damn about our state’s future and our kids’ future.
“South Australia needs strong independent representation in the Senate to ensure our state never misses out of its fair share of federal services and funding. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again.”
Mr Xenophon came under fire after he went to work for Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which was banned from Australia’s 5G rollout in 2018 due to security concerns.
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